I have been undertaking research in my spare time as part of a project that a friend is putting together. This May marks the 75th anniversary of the Exeter Blitz (3/4 May) and it is hoped to have a DVD ready to mark the occasion.

Interviews have been conducted with surviving witnesses and archive photographs unearthed. My part in the project has been researching the graves of Luftwaffe crewmen buried in Higher Cemetery, Exeter. My first thread posted on this forum relates to one of the men buried there.

My Dad who died last September was an ARP cycle messenger (at 14 years old) in the Exeter Blitz and I have his story written down: it includes the burning of the City Library and Castle Street. He also, via a junior Air Ministry job, got to know the pilots of 307 Polish Squadron and had joyrides in their Beaufighters. My Mum could give you her perspective (from an Anderson shelter in Ebrington Road) — she gives talks to primary school groups about her wartime childhood. Contact me on nick@ghostbombers.com if you're interested.

I'm pretty happy to come across this site with friendly folk discussing a favorite subject. Attaching a few pages from my painting website that i dedicate to my father, Lt. Ernest Anders Erickson a former B-17 Air Corps pilot. The site has been going for years, though began my father's pages in 2013 when I inherited his huge Air Corps archives. take a look-see.

Hello, I just wanted to introduce myself, I have been a member for a while, but never commented and I am amateur JG 27 Researcher ( novice) from Australia and have a great interest with this Geschwader I'm also researching Hans Joachim Marseille and his Staffel. I have a great passion for the Luftewaffe and the Bf 109. Thanks and regards, Adrienne.

As I have posted a couple of threads it seems rude not to say why I have been asking very specific questions about the Luftwaffe in North Germany in early April 1945. The reason is that I am carrying out major additional work to a book I authored in 1994 entitled 'No Triumphant Procession - The Forgotten Battles of April 1945'. The book concentrated on the battles fought on the rivers Weser and Aller by formations from British VIII and XII Corps against, in the main, 2.Marine-Infanterie-Division.

I wrote the book in those far-off, pre-internet days when information was far harder to come by and consequently my coverage of the Luftwaffe was very thin. I'm now putting that right and through this excellent forum have already had really helpful assistance from Nick Beale, RodM and Delmenhorst. My thanks to them again. Once I have completed my research I will seek a publisher and hopefully produce a significantly enlarged MkII edition of my book. Pigs might....!

As I have posted a couple of threads it seems rude not to say why I have been asking very specific questions about the Luftwaffe in North Germany in early April 1945. The reason is that I am carrying out major additional work to a book I authored in 1994 entitled 'No Triumphant Procession - The Forgotten Battles of April 1945'. The book concentrated on the battles fought on the rivers Weser and Aller by formations from British VIII and XII Corps against, in the main, 2.Marine-Infanterie-Division.

I wrote the book in those far-off, pre-internet days when information was far harder to come by and consequently my coverage of the Luftwaffe was very thin. I'm now putting that right and through this excellent forum have already had really helpful assistance from Nick Beale, RodM and Delmenhorst. My thanks to them again. Once I have completed my research I will seek a publisher and hopefully produce a significantly enlarged MkII edition of my book. Pigs might....!

Hey, I have this book: I have always been interested in the last months of the war. In most WWII histories, the various Rhine crossings are described in details and then the focus goes to the Berlin battle. But April 1945 in Western Germany was still bloody (same applies to France after Dunkirk: actually more French and German died after Dunkirk than during the first phase of the campaign, still you read little about it).

Well done Nick and Laurent and I congratulate you both on your excellent taste in reading material! How right you are about the bloodiness of the final weeks. This is what a British company commander wrote about those days....

'Reading the English newspapers at that time, one would have thought that fighting had virtually ceased and that all we were doing was to motor along and take thousands of prisoners. This annoyed us to no small degree and…two of our bitterest engagements were yet to be fought. Although things were going very well, yet valuable lives were still being lost daily, and we wished that some of these war correspondents who were sending back these totally inaccurate reports could be up with us to see what was really going on.'

Tough times.

all the best

John

Last edited by 19JDKR45; 30th August 2017 at 20:02.
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